Country Music Icon Glen Campbell Has Died

Country music legend Glen Campbell died Tuesday at the age of 81 following a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Campbell, renowned for hits such as Rhinestone Cowboy, Wichita Lineman and By the Time I Get to Phoenix, died at in a Nashville facility for Alzheimer’s patients.

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and legendary singer and guitarist, Glen Travis Campbell, at the age of 81, following his long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease,” his family said in a statement.

Following his diagnosis in 2011, “Glen’s abilities to play, sing and remember songs began to rapidly decline,” his wife Kim Campbell said in an April press release.

Even so, Campbell recently released his final studio album, Adiós, a collection of mainly cover songs by Bob Dylan, Harry Nilsson and others, recorded after his Goodbye Tour.

“A feeling of urgency grew to get him into the studio one last time to capture what magic was left,” Kim Campbell said in April. “It was now or never.”

“Almost every time he sat down with a guitar, these were his go-to songs,” said Campbell’s daughter, Ashley, of the album. “They were very much ingrained in his memory — like, so far back that they were one of the last things he started losing.”

Heartbroken. I owe him everything I am, and everything I ever will be. He will be remembered so well and with so much love. pic.twitter.com/1Z8mm8Jzth

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Determined to make music despite his battle with Alzheimer’s, Campbell recorded two albums and performed in more than 150 concerts following his diagnosis.

Campbell also starred in the documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, which chronicled his life with Alzheimer’s. His song, I’m Not Gonna Miss You, which plays at the conclusion of the film, earned him a Grammy Award. The song was also nominated for an Oscar in 2015.

Kim Campbell revealed in March that her husband could no longer play guitar or sing, yet said in April that he still had an awareness of God.

“Faith has always been the central part of our relationship,” she said. “I’m so pleased that as Glen has entered the later stages of this illness, it’s evident that he has retained his awareness of God. That really comforts me to know that he has that sense of God’s presence in his life, that he’s not alone.”

Campbell is survived by his wife, Kim, their three children, Cal, Shannon and Ashley; his children from previous marriages, Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane, and Dillon; 10 grandchildren, great and great-great-grandchildren; sisters Barbara, Sandra, and Jane; and brothers John Wallace “Shorty” and Gerald.